Library of Mourning
by Kieno0324
Summary: When Madoka takes over for Naru when he's gone, Mai didn't think that they would get a case. Especially one that involves flying books, a mischevious librarian ghost, and a ghost that hasn't been dead all that long. A member may just lose their life!
1. Chapter 1

Yes, I am actually back. Between school ending and surgery, I have had little time and interest in writing. But now that I have all summer to write, I thought I'd give it another whirl. Hopefully, this story will be updated on a weekly basis. Enjoy reading and review! The reviews make me very happy!

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Prologue

Mai Taniyama, aged eighteen years, bounced into the SPR office with a bright smile on her face and a bouquet of daisies in her hand. One might ask, with the boss that Mai had, why would she be brave enough to bring such bright flowers into the office? Well, her boss and his associate had been forced to fly home for said boss's mother's birthday.

"Oh, Mai! What beautiful flowers!" a voice exclaimed. Mai turned around after setting the flowers on her desk to be met with her temporary boss. Madoka was a bright, bubbly young woman that could make even Naru bend to her whims. When she had heard that Naru would be going to England and that she would be in Japan, she had insisted on taking over for the short month Naru would be gone

"I know! I saw them on my trip and had to buy them! Have you settled in? Is there anything I can get you?" she asked as she shed her coat and placed her purse in the drawer she kept it in. She turned to look at Madoka and saw the woman was smiling at her from the chair that Naru usually claimed.

"Some tea would be nice, if you don't mind?" the woman asked. Mai felt her jaw almost drop. She wasn't used to being asked for tea. She nodded with a smile on her face before moving into the kitchen. She pulled the teapot out and filled it with water. She placed it on the stove and turned the flame on. She bustled around the kitchen as she placed some biscuits on the trey as she waited for the teapot to whistle.

When the whistle let loose shrilly, Mai turned around and hurriedly turned the stove off while taking the teapot off. She poured the hot water into a teacup before placing a tea packet in and mixing it in. Once she was sure it was mixed completely, she balanced the trey and took it out to Madoka. She set the trey down and handed Madoka the teacup.

"Thank you!" Madoka exclaimed as she took the cup. She took a sip and Mai gave a small giggled as a pleasant look spread across her face. "This is one of the things I look forward to when I come and visit. I truly love your tea."

"Thank you! You and Naru are so completely opposite. He wouldn't even think about saying something like that." Mai told her. Madoka shrugged as Mai took a seat. Mai wasn't sitting for ten minutes before the door opened hesitantly and she watched as a young woman entered with an uncertain look on her face.

"Hi! Can I help you?" Mai asked as she jumped up from her desk. She watched as the woman jumped and turned to look at her. Mai smiled at her gently as she recognized the look the woman had on her face. An uncertain look that made the wearer wonder if they really wanted to be there. Mai saw it on all their clients until they started talking and realized that the SPR team wasn't going to call them crazy.

"Um, this is the SPR office, correct?" the woman asked softly. Mai nodded before leaning her to the couch and Madoka. The woman looked up from her magazine and smiled at her before shutting the magazine and placing it on the coffee table.

"I'm Mai Taniyama, an Investigator, and this is one of my bosses, Madoka Mori." Mai introduced with a smile that she hoped would calm the young woman down. It seemed to work as she saw the woman calm down slightly, tightened muscles began to relax.

"One?" the woman questioned curiously. Madoka nodded with a smile as she held her hand out to shake the woman's.

"Yes. I'm a Vice-President of the Company. The President is currently out of the country so I'm taking over for him. How can I be of service?" Madoka asked and Mai blinked. She was so much more amicable than Naru ever thought about being to his clients.

"You can still…perform investigations though, right?" the woman almost seemed nervous that Madoka would turn her away. Mai continued to give a comforting smile as she sat down across from the woman.

"Yes, I am qualified. Now, why don't you tell us your name and why you're here?" Madoka asked in a gentle voice. The woman nodded before she took a deep breath.

"My name is Cho Smith. I live in a small town outside of Tokyo, about thirty minutes I suppose. I'm not here about my house but about the place that I work. I'm the Head Librarian at the Noriko Library. A few months ago, things started happening, books were rearranging themselves and no one had an excuse.

"At first, it was just in the children's section and I just thought the kids just didn't know where to put the books. But then it got worse and worse. Soon, every morning when I came in to open the library, it was completely rearranged. I thought that I was going crazy so I set up one of those little cameras that you can buy and set it to record all night.

"I came in the next morning and checked the tape. I was surprised to see books flying off shelves and onto other shelves. It was scary to watch but I refused to let my employees know. I decided to keep quiet until one night, when I was locking up, I was attacked by the books. It was then that I started looking up people that could help me. This was the only one that I felt I could trust." the woman explained and Mai could feel her eyes getting wider each minute the woman explained what was going on.

"Oh, my. Well, let me ask some questions, okay?" Madoka asked gently. Cho nodded in understanding and Madoka looked at Mai. "Mai, would you take notes?"

Mai stood up and gathered her notepad and pencil before sitting back down and smiled at Madoka. The woman smiled before taking the last sip of her tea and setting the cup down on the coffee table. Mai watched as Madoka crossed her legs and placed her folded hands on top of her knees. She gave another gentle smile before starting to question the woman in front of her.

"You said that the books rearrange themselves, is there any method to how they rearrange?" Madoka asked. Cho thought for a moment before nodding.

"Yes. It's an old method that hasn't been used since before World War I. No one knows that sorting code except me and that's only because I did research on the library before I applied for the job." Cho told them. Mai made a note of this, wondering if maybe this would help them date the time period that the ghost, or whatever it was, that was playing around in the library.

"I see. Well, it sounds like you need our help and we don't have any cases that are supposed to come in. If you would give me the address, I can have the rest of our team assembled and out there by tomorrow. Is there anywhere that we can stay while investigating?" Madoka asked. Cho nodded.

"Yes. You can stay with me and my husband. We live only a few blocks away so I walk to work everyday. The town is small compared to Tokyo, we maybe have twenty-five hundred residents." Cho told them. The two women exchanged looks as this was obviously a very small town. Cho wrote down the address of the library and handed it over to Madoka with a smile.

"Thank you. We should be there about lunchtime tomorrow. We'll need a room to set our equipment up in as well." Madoka told the woman as they all stood up. As Mai opened the door for their client, Cho turned to look at them with a slightly worried look on her face.

"There's one more thing that you should know before you come." she told them.

"Oh? What would that be?" Madoka asked with a smile as she turned from Naru's office door. Mai and Madoka both watched as the woman sighed and twisted her hands into the skirt that she wore. Mai wondered if the poor woman was going to speak. It was when she finally did tell them that Mai wished she hadn't.

"The first two librarians that ever worked there in the early eighteen hundreds are buried there. The coffins are on display in the library."

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Don't forget to review!! I want to hear what everyone thinks about this!


	2. Chapter 2

Yes, I know. It has been a long time. Sadly, my life has become rather hectic and I don't know when the next update will come but it will come. This has only come out because it was halfway complete when I had time to finish it. I do apologize and hopefully the next chapter will be out in at least a month. If not, I apologize again but rest assured that I will be working on it more now that I've gotten my writing back.

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The next day when the SPR van pulled up, Mai had to gawk at the size of the library. It didn't look as though it belonged in the little town in whish it was situated. Mai was certain that it would look more in place in the middle of Tokyo. She glanced over at Madoka who also seemed shocked at the size of the place.

"From the research that I did, it would seem this library is the only thing this town has that it's own. Most of the residents either work here or commute the thirty or so minutes into Tokyo. I have a feeling that if it wasn't for this library that the whole town wouldn't exist." Madoka told her as they climbed out of the van. Mai nodded before looking over as she heard Takigawa's white SUV pull in behind them. She watched as the rest of the team, minus Yasuhara who had finals week, piled out. All of their faces held the same looks of shock that Mai's had held moments ago.

"This place is huge! Do you even have enough equipment to cover it all, Mori-san?" Takigawa asked as he went over to help open the doors of the van. Madoka smiled at him before waving the rest of them over.

"I hope so. Now, I want all of you to stay here while Mai and I go and talk to Cho and her husband. She's going to give us a tour of the most haunted sites. Then, we'll see if we have enough equipment to do the job." Madoka told everyone. They all nodded in understanding before Madoka looked at Mai and the short haired girl nodded.

"Do you have your pen and pad for notes? I don't want to miss anything that you may think important." Madoka told her. Mai held up the two objects that Madoka had asked about before following her to the library. They entered through the main doors and Mai felt her eyes almost pop out.

Even in the lobby, there were hundreds of bookshelves with books on them. There were many people browsing the books and Mai wondered briefly how man books were borrowed in the average day and if any of the borrowers knew that the library was potentially haunted. She shook her head and looked over at the librarian's desk when she heard her and Madoka's name being called.

"Mori-san, Taniyama-san, this is my husband, Adam Smith. Adam, honey, these are the people I told you about." Cho introduced. Mai thought that Adam and Cho made a cute couple. Adam had blonde hair and bright blue eyes, similar to how John looked. Cho was very much the Japanese woman with her dark hair and black eyes.

"Nice to meet you. Do you work here at the Library as well?" Madoka asked as she shook the man's hand. He nodded with a smile on his face.

"Yes. I'm the Treasurer. I buy the books that we don't have or have been destroyed and need to be replaced. My office is on the third floor, first door on the left if you need me." he told them before turning on his heel and walking away. Mai noticed the way that Cho sighed and rubbed her temples.

"I'm sorry. He's upset about this and everything. He's never been one for the supernatural until I showed him the tape I had recorded. But never mind. Let me show you around and the room that you requested." the woman smiled. Mai and Madoka shared a look and Mai looked after the man that had just stormed off. She wondered briefly if the man was always so angry.

"Okay, this is the children's area. There's usually a reading at three and five o'clock in the afternoon. From what I've noticed, activity usually doesn't start up here or anywhere else until we lock up. This is where the activity first started, like I told you, and it keeps getting more violent. This was where I was attacked by the books before I came to you." Cho told them.

Mai felt a grin spread across her face. The place was painted in bright colors and Mai recognized some of the famous cartoon characters painted on the wall about waist height. She noticed that 'Hello, Kitty!' seemed to be the main theme around where many of the girly books were located. She continued to smile as she noticed that the bookshelves weren't very big as well, just the right size for little children to pull books off.

"It's very quaint. I'm sure the children love it here." Mai told the woman. Cho gave a small laugh before nodding. Mai followed the

"Yes. For most of them this is their nursery. Parents will bring them here and leave them until they get off work. If there's one good thing about having this library here, we have a lot of children that just love to read. Anyway, let me take you to the main archives. That's where most of our activity occurs." Cho said. Mai and Madoka followed the woman into a large room that had rows and rows of books and tables.

"This is the original library built in 1796. The rest was added on, piece by piece. We keep a lot of the old books here, most originals from when it first opened. This is what causes me the most trouble. With how much they get rearranged in the night, I don't have the time to arrange them back in order by myself. I can't tell my employees how the books are rearranging into an old system." the woman told them before pausing. Mai instantly realized that this wasn't all that was going on here. She went over and gently placed her hand on Cho's shoulder.

"What else goes on here, Smith-san? There's something that you're afraid to tell us but you shouldn't be. We've seen almost everything," Mai asked gently. She didn't want to scare the woman but she knew from past experience that if they didn't know everything that someone could get hurt.

"Well, yes. There's one more thing. The other night, after I had come to see you, I was down here closing everything up. I was hurrying because I didn't want to get attacked again, some of the books down here are really heavy and could cause severe damage. Anyway, I saw this shadow out of the corner of my eye. When I looked up, there was this silhouette walking towards me. Before it got to me, it almost seemed as though it turned it's head before disappearing." she whispered. Mai took a deep breath before patting the girl on the shoulder.

"Alright, Cho. You said there were two coffins here. Can you show me where they are?" Madoka asked. Mai followed two women and felt her stomach jump into her chest when she saw the two coffins. They were propped up against the wall and made of a deep oak wood. Mai's heart was beating faster than normal. She wondered if any of the patrons of the library knew what these two wooden boxes were.

"This is Makoto Noriko on the left and Shouen Sasukara on the right. Makoto-sama was the first librarian and founded the library shortly after the town was started. Shouen-sama was the librarian that got the grant for the library to be expanded in the eighteen hundreds, she died shortly after of heart failure. They both requested to have their bodies laid to rest here so the library had these special coffins made for them and then placed the remains here." Cho told them. Mai felt a shiver go down her spine.

"Doesn't this scare some of your borrowers?" she asked. Cho shrugged her shoulders and smiled gently.

"No. Not many of them know the truth and I think that's the way that we want to keep it. They wanted to rest in peace here and we want to give them that. They contributed greatly to this library. Although…it is a bit creepy down here at night." the woman replied and Mai watched as the woman stared up at the coffins. Madoka cleared her throat and the other two looked at her as she smiled.

"Are there any other places or is this it? We need to set up equipment." Madoka told her. Mai realized that Madoka wanted to get started to try and help this woman and didn't want to waste time on touring places that were experiencing the same activity.

"Not really. I'll show you the room that I had set up for you." Cho offered. Madoka nodded and Mai smiled. They followed the librarian and when they had the location of the base set, Mai and Madoka began to help setting up. Once everything was set up, Madoka spoke to everyone.

"I just want to let everyone know that I do things a little bit different than Naru and Lin. I'm going to switch out people that watch the monitors so that everyone can get a chance to investigate. I'll divide everyone into teams. Each team will need a voice recorder and a mobile camera.

"We will wait until the library is closed. I don't want to get interference from any of the people that may be visiting the library, okay? So, for now, you can go and explore. Stay away from the main part for now; I don't want whatever is in there to recognize our presence and to know to hide. Everyone can gawk at the coffins tonight. Now, Brown-san, if you would show me the angles of the cameras, please?" Madoka finished brightly.

"So there really are two dead librarians down there?" Ayako asked when she bent to Mai's ear. The girl frowned before looking at the woman with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes. You could be a little less blunt about it though. As creepy as it is, I don't find it all that odd. From what Cho told us, those librarians gave a lot to the library and this was the place that they thought was home." Mai replied before sighing. She turned and began to walk out of the base before turning to the rest of the team.

"I'm going to go to the Children's area! It's so cute in there!" Mai exclaimed happily before dashing out. She made her way to the section and watched from the door as children played with the toys and read books that they had taken off shelves. Mai continued to watch the children play before one noticed her.

"Hey! Miss, want to play with us?" the child called out. Mai smiled before walking in and sitting beside the young boy. He had blonde hair with dark green eyes. He reminded her of a young John.

"Hi! My name's Mai and I'm here to help the library with some things that need fixing. I have to wait until the library closes so I was just looking around." Mai told the young children. They all grinned at her before the boy handed her a book and stared at her expectantly. She realized rather quickly that the boy wanted her to read the book to him and the other young children.

"Okay, so…how many of you know about the frog and the princess?" she asked as she opened the book.

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"There is something here that I can't explain." Masako whispered softly as she and Mai walked after hours. The library had closed three hours ago and it was their first walkthrough of the library. Mai glanced at the dark headed girl as she shone her flashlight down one of the aisles of books in the basement where the coffins were.

"Masako, would you feel uncomfortable about going to the coffin display? I haven't been able to stop thinking about it." Mai asked her. She watched Masako shrug her shoulders before nodding.

"That's fine. I've been interested in seeing it. I have to wonder why they would keep the coffins here and on display for so long. Shouldn't they be buried?" Masako asked as they made their way. Mai glanced at the girl before furrowing her brow as she looked back in the direction she was walking.

"That's what I thought. You would think that displaying it for a few days after the death would be okay but years later? Masako, how much of a connection would a ghost have to his or her coffin?" Mai asked. She watched as Masako bit her lip as she thought about the question.

"To be honest, Mai, I don't really know. There are a lot of ghosts that have a connection to their coffins or burial site. We wouldn't hear so many stories of hauntings in graveyards around the world if it was untrue. The best answer that I can give is that it depends on the type of person that has the coffin." Masako answered. Mai nodded satisfied with the answer. She certainly wouldn't have gotten such an answer from Naru if she had asked him for it.

"They're just down here." Mai said before a shiver went down her spine. She glanced at Masako to see that her face had paled slightly. Masako's eyes locked with Mai's before nodding.

"Hurry. I want to get this over with." Masako spoke softly. Mai nodded and the two teenagers quickened their pace. When they reached the coffins Mai felt her heart speeding up again as her flashlight showed the coffins leaning against the wall. Mai gave a soft sigh before pulling the voice recorder from her pocket and looking at Masako. The dark haired girl nodded and Mai switched it on.

"Mai and Masako near the coffins of the librarians." Mai spoke loudly so that they could tell that she wasn't a ghost. She glanced at Masako and the medium took a deep breath before starting the electronic voice phenomena session.

"Hello, my name is Masako and this is my friend, Mai. We aren't here to hurt you we want to help. Can you tell us your name?" Masako asked. Mai looked around as silence pressed down on them and she shivered. She felt as though someone was watching them but she couldn't tell where they were.

"How many are here?" Mai asked. She waited until they had enough time to answer. "Are you a librarian here?"

"Are you angry that they've rearranged the books? That would make me angry, I think. You worked so hard to arrange these books and now it's all rearranged." Masako told the air. Mai looked over her shoulder as there was a loud thump. The two teenagers shared a look before Mai screeched as she felt something pull on her hair. The tug was so strong that the chair Mai was sitting on toppled over with her still in it.

"Mai! Are you alright?" Masako cried. Mai groaned as she climbed to her feet rubbing her head where the hair had been pulled. She glanced at the medium and nodded as the pain remained.

"Yeah. I'm fine. I think that you made it mad and it took it out on me." Mai whispered with a soft sigh before picking the recorder up and turning it off. She glanced at the camera that had been set up and saw that it was both the thermal and a regular camera. She glanced at Masako with a small smile before pointing at the cameras.

"Let's see if we can see what attacked me on the thermal. I-" Mai was cut off as there was a loud rattling. She glanced at the coffin that Shouen was in and saw that it was shaking. Mai felt her heart pounding as the coffin started to open and she glanced at Masako who also looked pale.

"Mai…the coffin!! It's….empty!!" the girl screamed. Mai's head snapped around and she gasped. Masako was right. Shouen Sasukara's coffin was empty.

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Please remember to review! It's what keeps me going even though it may not seem like it!! And thank you to everyone that hasn't given up on me! You know who you are!


	3. Chapter 3

Uh, Hi! I know, I know, it's been forever. I had told some of you that I would probably not update again but something struck a chord within me recently and I can't stop writing. I've started a new Rurouni Kenshin Fanfic, so those of you that enjoy that anime please go take a look! Now, to this story. I really want to finish so I will but school is getting ready to start back up so please expect long waits for updates but nowhere near to the time it took for this. Now, this chapter is short and probably a little rough. I plan on making the next one much longer with some more appearances coming in. For those of you that have been waiting so long I am SO sorry. For those newcomers, welcome! Enjoy and please review! PS, I know my writing may be a little rusty but bear with me as I get back into the swing of things!

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"E-empty? How?!" Mai squealed loudly as the coffin tilted forward and landed on the ground with a loud thud. Mai glanced at Masako and saw that she was looking as though she were going to be sick. Mai wasn't very sure if her stomach was going to survive the development either. She reached over and grabbed Masako's sleeve and started to drag her back to the base.

"Let's go. The thought that there is no body in there makes me wonder where it _is_ exactly. And the fact that I'm not sure I really want to know." Mai whispered as she lengthened her pace. She heard Masako give a small noise that the other girl could only hope was agreement because Mai was not going to stick around.

When they entered the base she noticed that Madoka and Yasuhara were sitting at the table with all of the monitors. Mai watched as they looked up and saw that she and Masako were standing there. Mai caught her breath before speaking as she was finally able to speak because she could breathe once more.

"Madoka…the coffin…Sasukara-san's coffin…its empty!" Mai panted out. She watched as Madoka's eyes went wide before she jumped up and picked her flashlight up and dashed out. Mai furrowed her brow before going over to Yasuhara sitting in the seat Madoka had just vacated with Masako claiming the seat beside her.

"Are you sure that it was empty?" Yasuhara asked. Masako huffed angrily and Mai looked at the dark headed girl wondering why she was irritated.

"We're not blind, Yasuhara! Of course it was empty! Why would we make that up?!" the girl was obviously upset at the fact that the coffin had been empty. Mai turned her attention to the screens as she watched Madoka walk in. She reached over and clicked a button and watched as the screen switched over to thermal and frowned in confusion at the image that greeted her.

"Yasuhara…tell me that you see a lingering heat signature in the open coffin." she told him. She felt him look over her shoulder. She heard him let out a breath and she glanced up at him curiously. She watched as he pointed at a place on the screen with a shaking finger.

"That's not all. Look at the other coffin." he told her. She furrowed her brow and looked at the screen. She gasped softly as she saw that inside the other coffin was a heat signature as well. They watched as that coffin began to rattle as Madoka stood in front of it studying the other coffin that lay on the floor.

"The books! The books are moving!" Masako cried. Mai glanced at the screen that was stacked atop of the screen that Madoka was on. She watched as the books started to fly from the shelves and she gave a soft gasp. She watched as the books got closer and closer to Madoka.

Mai reached pulled her walkie talkie from her belt and pushed the button that would make Madoka's beep so she could talk to her. She heard the loud beep and glanced to her left to see that Madoka had left her device in the base. Mai glanced back at the scream and squealed.

A large book made hard contact with the back of Madoka's head. She watched as her friend collapsed to ground and it became even worse. She could feel her breathing accelerate as the coffin that was still upright started to shake even more. She felt her heart jump as the coffin opened to reveal, like the first one, that it was empty as well.

"Oh, no!" Masako cried as the coffin fell down onto Madoka. Mai was out of her chair in a single moment as she pushed hard on the button to get the attention of all the others that were out investigating other parts of the library.

"GET DOWN TO THE BASEMENT NOW! MADOKA HAS BEEN HURT!" she screamed loudly into the device as she dashed down the steps. When she reached the area and saw the coffin on the ground with one of Madoka's arms sticking out. She felt her heart beating up in her throat before she ran to the empty coffin as she dodged the flying books.

She barely registered Takigawa and Ayako running in and start chanting as she pushed the coffin off her friend. She turned Madoka over and saw that the woman's eyes were half opened as though she were regaining consciousness. She patted Madoka's cheeks and the woman gave a soft groan. Mai looked up as there were loud thumping sounds all around and saw with relief that all the books had fallen to the floor. She turned her attention back to Madoka as the woman gave a soft groan.

"Madoka! Can you hear me?" Mai cried. The woman's eyes fluttered open and she gave a small groan. Mai helped her sit up. Ayako quickly made her way over to them when she entered the room. She knelt down beside Madoka and started to examine her head before letting out a slow breath.

"Mai, can you help me get her back to the base? I want to be able to get a good look and see if I need to bandage her head. She still looks out of it." Ayako commented. Mai glanced at Madoka's eyes and saw that her eyes were slightly glazed over. The younger girl stood up before helping Madoka up with Ayako on the other side as they slowly made their way to the base.

"Is she alright?!" Yasuhara jumped up from his seat as did Masako as the two women brought Madoka in. Mai helped Ayako sit Madoka down on the cot. She turned away as the doctor examined Madoka's head before shrugging her shoulders.

"She was hit pretty hard by that book. She hasn't said anything just yet but did you guys see? The other coffin is just as empty as the first!" the girl cried. Yasuhara nodded before Masako let out a small breath. Mai glanced at the medium as she wondered what she was thinking.

"I'm fine, Ayako. I've been hit by things harder and bigger than that book." Madoka said as she shooed the doctor away. Mai turned back to her friend as she stood up wobbly on her feet. Mai moved forward to help the older woman get her balance before stopping as Madoka also waved her away. "I'll be okay, I promise. It's going to take more than a knock to the head to get me out of the game permanently."

"I'm sure that's true but I would feel better if you could actually stand up without the help of another person. Those ghosts are violent. Another injury like that and you could very well be on your way to the hospital." Ayako said sternly. Mai watched as the _Miko_ forced their boss to sit down. Madoka crossed her arms looking like a pouting child.

"Fine, I'll stay here until the room stops spinning. In the mean time I want Masako, John, Takigawa, and Mai to go investigate that site. Something set those ghosts off and I want to know why." Madoka said. Mai nodded in agreement before watching as the other three preceded her out of the room. She turned towards Madoka with her head tilted. She offered a smile once the woman realized she was looking at her.

"Is there anything else you need me to do before I go with them?" she asked quietly. Madoka just sent her a smile as she shook her head.

"I'm good, Mai. Go ahead. Ayako, Yasu, and I have the surveillance. I'll never hear the end of it from that idiot student of mine if I can't solve this on my own." Madoka told her. Mai blinked before dropping her head as a sad smile spread across her face. This was actually the first time Naru had even been mentioned. It was also the first time his face had come to mind.

"Mai, he will come back. He might not show it but he has a lot to care about here in Japan." Madoka told her. Mai's head snapped up with a blush staining her cheeks. She managed to smile at the older woman. Madoka returned the smile cheerfully before making a shooing motion with her hands. "Go on before they think you've gotten lost. We don't need them panicking."

"Right!" Mai agreed. She turned and was about to leave the room before John's voice came from the walk talkie Yasuhara had sitting next to one of the monitors.

"I don't know if you haven't notice this on the monitors but the coffins are back in their original spots. We've tried opening them but they're sealed shut." the blonde said. Mai felt her eyes go wide before looking back at Madoka. The older woman also looked confused at the new turn of events.

"How is that even possible? We all saw! The coffins crashed to the ground and they were empty!" Ayako cried. Mai continued to watch as Madoka's face went through a myriad of expressions. She was trying to figure out what was going on herself. Mai blinked as she suddenly laughed.

"We've been duped…by the ghosts themselves it would seem. It seems as though these ghosts, whoever they are, are testing us. They wanted to see what our reactions to empty coffins would be. Now that they have them they've set everything up the way it used to be." she suddenly said. Mai couldn't help but scratch her head in confusion at that particular statement.

"Why would the ghosts possibly do that? They're _empty_ coffins. I mean, yeah, they're creepy but why would anyone, dead or alive, want to know how someone else would react to one?" Mai finally voiced. She swallowed at the small smile Madoka had on her face. She found she really did _not _like it when Madoka smile like that. It looked far too much like the smirk Naru gave when he had something figured out.

"You forget one very important thing, Mai. Those coffins…used to hold the bodies those ghosts used to own. They're not there anymore. Not only is this a paranormal ghost but it looks as though it's turning into a body hunt." Madoka told her. Mai's jaw dropped before her head quickly followed.

'I should've quit when I had the chance.'


	4. ANAgain

Okay, I thought I would be able to easily write this story. Unfortunately I was wrong. That doesn't mean however, I'm giving up on this story or Ghost Hunt. I have another idea for a chaptered fic which I think is my problem. I'm fixated on it and want to write it. I'm going to do that and once that one is finished I will come back to this one. Indeed I'll be working on it at the same time. I'm so sorry to disappoint you all again. But! Please keep an eye out for it...especially if you're also a fan of the Nancy Drew games! I've done that before and one of the games has given me a great idea once more!


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